NORAID Pool Tourney: Chicago-D

A fantastic Windy City billiards tournament sponsored for an inter-faith program in modern Europe serves as a backdrop for the 20th-anniversary of 9/11.

A 9/11 2o-year anniversary anti-terrorism vignette about a fictional NORAID triumph, inspired by the billiards-cinema The Color of Money. 

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NORAID was hosting a special pool/billiards tournament in the Windy City (Chicago/USA). Many great talents would be invited, including Grady Seasons and Tom Shuttle and Paul O'Meara. NORAID was offering American financial support for Sinn Fein programs in the United Kingdom favoring Catholic-Protestant coops, to ease terrorism and retaliation military force fears. Chicago became a billiards heaven for a short time as we neared the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

One of the contenders in this NORAID-sponsored Chicago pool/billiards tournament was the great Amlan Satan, who'd made a special named for himself going on competitive pool circuits in Vegas, Reno, and Atlantic City (AC). He was considered a very finesse-oriented aim-centric player whose balls just laid out on the pool-table for him with his ability to create angles of shots that opened up alleys of well-placed ball motions. Satan had the billiards-world nickname Storm-Shadow (SS).

NORAID: This billiards-tourney in the Windy City should see some terrific media-lights for the under-represented game!

Billiards just involves two competitors or teams playing to see who can use their long 'pool-stick' to strike in a set of their own balls (solid-colored or striped) into the pool-table pocket-holes before the opponent managed to do so, all the while avoiding sinking the famed black-colored '8-ball before their other balls (solid-colored/striped) were sunk first. NORAID considered this media event a terrific boon for their endeavor to bring more social attention to European investments in Catholic-Protestant coops, which really needed more social support from wealthy/activist Americans!

Some of the design for the advertisements and presentations for the Windy City pool-tourney hosted by NORAID were drawn from Scorsese's landmark billiards-imagination 1980s film The Color of Money (Tom Cruise). The contenders were ready, and it would be a social gaming event for modern times in the great United States.

AMLAN SATAN (contender): The arena-building for this Chicago event is really something, renovated from a sports-complex.

One of the lead event coordinators was the Irish-Catholic fire-chief's wealthy Chicago daughter Patricia O'Keefe, who considered Amlan the favorite to win the coveted prize --- a pot of gold coins! --- but she was secretly rooting for someone else in this Chicago tourney.

O'KEEFE: The lucky 'Irishman' who'll win the tournament in the Windy City will be awarded with a leprechaun pot-'o-gold!

AMLAN: Pool is an excellent game with a black-and-white past, and its halls where champions played late-night haunt.

Another invited top-contender was Oliver, a man who played mostly in British Columbia but mostly in billiards clubs and night-clubs and preferred not to make himself a 'celebrity' in the world of pool. However, those who followed the sport and noticed the recent surge of foreigners coming into North America to compete in pool tourneys/games know that Oliver represented the 'old-school' of North American pool-hall aesthetics/intelligence. He's a sharp-shooting and hard-hitting quick styled player and Amlan's greatest rival arguably.

Another contender is Elias Pointe, an Algerian-French woman who liked to play with great diagonal style play and liked to create only long-shots for unnerving of her opponents, which is why even Amlan Satan worried about what she might be able to accomplish in this Windy City NORAID-sponsored billiards event. Would she win the leprechaun's pot of gold-coins prize?

ELIAS: I'm bringing a backpack full of candy-cigarettes, since kids will be there at the tourney!

The tournament began and there were a few minor upsets in the table of about 50 contenders, but most of the favorites including Amlan and Oliver made it through the early rounds. Event coordinator O'Keefe told TV-cameras, "This is a great way for NORAID to raise money/awareness of inter-faith social programs/work in the UK today, in this 20th-anniversary year of 9/11."

Oliver almost lost to an upstart from Minnesota named Chico Patel, a man from Bombay (India), but he managed to win in the end, taking down his long count of solid-colored balls to Chico's single striped-ball which was the one reduced down because of some extraordinary trick-shots. Oliver breathed in relief and told TV-cameras, "I just lucky to win, ya know!"

AMLAN: This will be remembered as something really cool the Windy City managed to organize in modern times!

Amlan intended to purchase a white vintage 1980s Lamborghini sports-car with the gold-coins he'd win if he won the Windy City NORAID billiards tournament. He'd drive it cross-country and maybe settle down somewhere in the American Southwest.

Another top-contender is Eric Red, whose style of play is very unusual since it involves very slow and carefully-placed shots, be they long-or-short. This can be unnerving to an opponent who simply doesn't have nerve/patience to watch and 'see' what the opponent is doing/thinking during the exciting and anxious billiards game. Eric's awesome.

Another contender is Wendy Chanda, a woman from Thailand. She's very attractive and sweet but deadly on the billiards table. She wants to take down Amlan Satan with some fancy shooting designed to create open shot opportunities for herself while trapping Amlan's balls into a congestion state of play. Can she do it?

AMLAN: I'm very very lucky to have defeated the very tricky Wendy in this tourney with some last-minute heroics.

Well, folks, Oliver was upset by Elias. Yes, the Algerian-French woman managed to outplay the hot British Columbian whom many of the fans/sponsors hoped would either win or at least challenge the great Amlan Satan in the final. It looked like Elias would now face Amlan, but she'd have to get past Eric Red.

ELIAS: I defeated Eric Red with some steady-thinking play, outmaneuvering his style of slow and unnerving strategism.

It came down to Elias the woman and Amlan the man in the Final. The ultimate gender-contest would see the winner grab that leprechaun's pot-of-gold coins. This was terrific media-money for NORAID too.

JOURNALIST (Billiards Magazine): You won, but how'd you defeat Elias Pointe?
AMLAN: Her long diagonal shots finally were outplaced by my angled convenience play.
JOURNALIST: Were you relieved?
AMLAN: Everyone underestimated Elias.
JOURNALIST: So what're you doing with your leprechaun gold?
AMLAN: I'm buying a car and driving cross-country and donating some to charity.
JOURNALIST: Are you aware of Gerry Adams or Sinn Fein work in Europe?
AMLAN: I'm sure he's watching as a fan!

Amlan married his Irish-Catholic high-school sweetheart Shelbye Collins who's watching the NORAID-sponsored billiards event in the Windy City in this 20th-anniversary year of 9/11. They bought a home together in Colorado. They have two kids now, Sean and Ambica.

AMLAN: I took photos of the event, my Chicago billiards triumph, with my handy-dandy Polaroid, and I thank Jesus.

"An important event in the history of Irish Northern Aid occurred in Belfast in August 1984, when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) tried arrest Martin Galvin, the organization’s Director of Publicity and the editor of The Irish People. A few weeks prior to the event, Galvin was excluded from Northern Ireland. When he appeared at a rally in in Belfast the RUC tried to arrest him" (NORAID).

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)